Sohrab Shaheed Salles or Sohrab Shahid-Saless (June 28, 1944 in Tehran, Iran – July 2, 1998 in Chicago, Illinois, U.S.) was an Iranian film director and screenwriter and one of the most celebrated figures in Iranian cinema in the 20th century. After 1976 he worked in the cinema of Germany and was an important component of the film diaspora working in the German industry.

Film career

After the revolution aftermaths in Iran and with restrictions faced by film makers and the difficulties of acquiring raw 35 mm film rolls, he made his first feature, the milestone film A Simple Event (1973), he describes the everyday life of a ten-year-old boy living in a small town with an ill mother and a father struggling to make a living smuggling fish. In contrast, Still Life (1974) explores the monotony in the life of an old railway switchman – a film that won many prizes, including one at the 1974 Berlinale. In 1975 Sohrab directed Far from Home (1975). In 1976 on moving to Germany Sohrab released Diary of a Lover (1976), Time of Maturity (1976), and Utopia (1983). Utopia is a 186-minute film regarded by critics as a "hard ghetto film" and is the tale of a pimp and his five girls. The film was entered into the 33rd Berlin International Film Festival. Shahid Saless is known to be a pioneer of the new wave of Iranian cinema. In his own words, his cinema intends to document the "antagonism between man and society". In the course of his oeuvre, he viewed the role of cinema as "to make conscious of indignity and inhumanity of life".

Filmography as director

Short Features & TV movies

Awards and accolades

Sohrab Shaheed Salles won 12 professional film awards and 3 nominations during his career.